Market Test Your Product

Where did all of these cats come from? I mean, I had no idea they all lived in my neighborhood! For the past week, there has been a steady stream of Calicos, Tabbies, and Siamese cats entering and exiting Rusty’s house. Wait a second. Rusty must be conducting some sort of market test for the cat toilet seat that he invented.


I remember how we approached our market test for CoolZips® zipper pulls. After perfecting our prototype, we handmade the zipper pulls, coming up with all sorts of colorful and unique styles. We then showed our friends and neighbors, who loved them and were excited to buy them for gifts. Next, we created a web site, started to sell them online, and received repeat business. After that, we participated in local art fairs where we sold 100 CoolZips at one and 300 at another. Human Lauren and Human Rick were convinced that there was a demand for our product; people were zipping them up! And this, as it turned out, was our market test.

So, no matter what your product is, the question always comes down to, “Will people buy it?” The answer that initially runs through our mind is, “Hell yes! This is going to revolutionize the industry, why wouldn’t people buy it? I’m going to be rich!” However, once we bring our head in from the car window and our ears stop flapping in the cool breeze, we realize that, somehow, we need to conduct some sort of market test to see if people will actually buy our idea.

How you carry out your market test may be, and probably will be, completely different from the next person’s. But, once you prove there is a market for your product, then you will be well on your way to getting that gold plated water dish that you’ve always wanted.